Gone But Still Here
by Eowyn Rain
Summary: With all of the chaos brewing and mounting, the anger and pain from loved ones, for the sadness that his own son was getting into trouble, it was moments like that he wished his wife was still around, for more than one reason. "Maddie would have known what to make of all of this. Oh God, why is she not here when I need her most? Who did this to us?"


**Characters: **Sheriff Stilinski, Stiles Stilinski, mentions Mrs. Stilinski

**Warning:** Mild talk of a violent death, but nothing above the violence in the Show. No spoilers, as far as a know. Big plot twist toward the end!

**Authour's Notes:** Did I just write ANGST? That never happends! Seriously, I have no idea where this came from, bt I hope you like it! Also, I gave the Sheriff and his Wife names.

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Sheriff Stilinski sighed as he poured himself a small glass of whiskey. All of those things in the reports in front of him, so many missing people, so many accidental and animal related deaths and injuries…

The Sheriff was not stupid, and had not been a member of law enforcement for so many years, and voted as Sheriff to boot by being stupid. He was a damn good cop and detective. Just because it scared and horrified him to see and know, however insane the outcome the evidence pointed to, how could he ignore what he knew to be fact?

John knocked back the whole glass.

With all of the chaos brewing and mounting, the anger and pain from loved ones, for the sadness that his own son was getting into trouble, it was moments like that he wished his wife was still around, for more than one reason.

_Maddie would have known what to make of all of this. Oh God, why is she not here when I need her most? Who did this to us?_

John cursed and threw his glass to the floor, letting the shards reflect deceptive crystal rainbows across the wall.

Stiles was not the only one who kept secrets and told lies, he told himself. One was really not his secret to tell, and was really supposed to stay a secret from Stiles, when he was old enough to understand, and not be afraid, or when he became an older brother, which never came. The other…he knew someday he would have to share the truth with his son but how do you tell him something so horrible, and have no futher answers to obvious burning questions, questions that still scorched him alive and made him quest for the truth and justice?

John flipped the file closed and went up to bed. Stiles was, once again, staying over at Scott's, or so he said.

What John didn't know, and should have figured, was that while Stiles looked like a carbon copy of his Mother, he was every bit the cop and detective John was.

The day he had been dreading for many years came on a sunny afternoon.

Stiles, who should have been at Lacrosse practice, bursted into the house like a violent hurricane.

With waves of anger rolling off of him that John could practically feel, Stiles stormed up to the kitchen table and smacked both of his palms onto the wood.

"Stiles! What's-"

"NO!" Stiles yelled. "No, you don't get to talk! You don't talk to me until you give me some answers!"

John stood and crossed his arms.

"You don't take that tone with me young-"

"DON'T YOU DARE! Don't…don't you dare talk about my tones. Not after what I heard today. Don't you dare Dad."

John took a deep breath and rubbed the corners of his eyes.

"Ok Stiles, I'll bite. What did you hear that made you so upset?"

Stiles, seeming to lose some of his momentum , lifted and dropped his hands, before looking up at his Dad with tearful, sad, lost eyes.

John felt his own eyes widen.

"Dad, you…I read…what…"

It was worse than he thought, seeing his son, the motor mouth, struggle with words.

_Please, please let it be something else. Anything else. I'm not ready for this yet._

Stiles finally swallowed, straightened his shoulders, and wiped his eyes.

He looked back up at his Dad.

"…you told me it was a car accident."

It was like a deathly blow. _Oh God, he knows._

"Dad, I looked up the article, because things started to not add up, so I looked up the article of Mom's accident…only there was no article. The only thing about Mom's death was her obituary."

The Sheriff reached out to his son. "Stiles…"

"Is this, like, a Harry Potter moment? Did you Harry Potter Mom's death? Tell me that she died in a car wreck outside of town, because she really died some other way?"

"Stiles, please, let me explain-"

"Oh God, you did. You Did!"

John tried to wrap his son in his arm, like he did when he was little and afraid of the guy on the oatmeal box, but Stiles just took a step away with a shocked, betrayed look on his face. A look that seemed to turn harder by the second.

"How could you-SHE WAS MY MOTHER!"

Feeling like his heart was breaking all over again, John place a hand over his chest.

In a distraught whisper, he said, "Yes, and she was my _Wife_."

Seeing the look of pain and placing a hand over his heart snapped Stiles out of a lot of his anger, turning it into concern. He took a step forward and touched his Dad's shoulder.

"Dad? Are you ok?"

A tiny bit relieved that he had not lost his son yet, John nodded.

"Yeah, but I think we both need to sit down and have a long overdue talk."

Stiles grimly nodded back, taking the seat across from John.

After a few minutes of silence, Stiles bravely opened the discussion.

"Dad, how did Mom die?"

The Sheriff took another deep, fortifying breath, got up and went to his filing cabinet.

"Dad! This is not the time to get a drink!"

Not even answering his son's worries, John pulled out the drawer and reached far, far back, pulling out an old tattered file.

Setting back down at the table, John laid a hand on the file, like a person would swear on a Bible in Court.

"She…Maddie was Murdered, Stiles."

Stiles struggled very hard not to cry or scream out in anguish, like John himself had done many a time. Stiles held his ground. John had a moment of pride seeing his son take after his Mother.

"How? Who?"

"I have tried so hard Stiles, looked at clues over and over again, had others try to find clues, followed ever lead, left no stone unturned…but have come up empty ever since friggen time. I'm so sorry Stiles, I don't know who killed your Mother, but I don't plan on stopping until I do."

"You didn't tell me how Dad."

"I know I didn't, and didn't plan to until I had that information for you. You needed to remember her how she was Stiles. She was the bright ray of sunshine in our lives, the gentle woman who loved jigsaw puzzles and couldn't bake, who hated radishes and loved Disney movies even more than you did. She kissed your boo boos, and call me on my bull, and was braver than any of the deputies I have ever trained. What happened to her…I didn't want that to taint everything else that she was. She was the love of my life, and your Mom, not some horror movie plot. She deserves to be remembered for her life, and **avenged** as hell for being taken away from us."

"Dad. How did she die?"

Feeling the bile rise in his throat, John pushed the file closer to his son.

"She…was bisected."

Stiles froze, and looked in shock and fury.

"Bisected, as in-"

"Some sicko cut her in half."

Stiles sat in silent for a long time, frozen in his seat, with his hand on the folder.

Something shifted in his son's face. The shock and fury were still there, but there seemed to be a certain curiousness and understanding overlapping.

"Was Mom a Werewolf?"

John nearly fell from his chair.

"How the hell…!" _How had he known?!_

Only to stop, and share a look with his son.

Some things finally, _finally_ became clear.

"I think it's time you and I have a long talk, Stiles. I think we might be able to help each other."

Sharing a determined look, both men, Father and son, so alike at times, jumped up from the table.

Stiles picked up his phone.

"I'll order the pizza, and a salad for you. Can't have long talks without food. This is going to take a while."

John grabbed all of the questionable case files that he had been going over, and spread them out on the table.

Looking up for a split second, the Sheriff could once again see the sparkle in familiar honey colored eyes, as his son tried to get the pizzeria to throw in free breadsticks.

_Maddie, even now you're still here, leading me to all of the answers. Damn you're good._

The Stilinski men were a team once again. This time, nothing would be held back, full trust bloomed, and new truths were to be shared and found out. Together.

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